Our War Game
by ChocoBanana Parfait
Summary: The end of one journey is the start of a war. The warriors of Cosmos gather to fight the final war in the cycle.


Disclaimer- all characters belong to Square-Enix

Author's note- so I wrote this a long time ago, way before Duodecim was announced, so I don't know if this negates how everyone got gathered for the war, but that's the beauty of fan fiction. Enjoy!

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The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was an endless field of white.

The warrior felt disoriented. None of his comrades were around, and Chaos was nowhere to be found, even though he supposedly dealt the final blow to the fiend. There weren't any buildings or signs of life around, save for one slab of stone that resembled a throne. Trying to get his bearings straight, the warrior decided to rest by the throne; it wouldn't be wise to explore the land, exhausted as he was and with no other soul in sight.

Some time had passed, whether it was minutes or hours he didn't know, but there was a flash of light off to his side, and he saw a young man dressed in black, kneeling and looking up into the sky. The warrior was about to call out to the man, but to his surprise, the man collapsed. Forgetting about his own exhaustion, the warrior rushed to help the newcomer. Physically, the young man seemed to be fine, save for a scar running across his forehead; something else must be ailing him.

The warrior tried to carry the young man back to the throne to let him rest there, but the task was arduous, partly because the warrior's strength was all but gone, and the young man wasn't exactly light in his unconscious state. He barely made any progress when he saw two more flashes of light before him, and two more men appeared before him. One was shorter and had a tail, and the other with a lithe build wearing a blue tunic, but both were out of breath and just as surprised to appear in the barren land.

The one with the tail spoke up first. "Where in the world are we?"

"I don't know," the other replied, "but who are all of you?"

"Sorry, didn't introduce myself. Let me catch my breath for a bit," the tailed man replied. "My name is Zidane, nice to meet you."

"I'm Bartz, nice to meet you too." He turned to the warrior. "What about you?"

The warrior shook his head. "My name is of no importance, and I don't know about this man, he was unconscious when he first appeared."

Zidane took a closer look at the pair. "You guys look beat, let us help you with him." Both boys headed over to help and took the black-garbed man from the warrior's hold. "I wonder how we even got to this place. This doesn't look like any place where I'm from."

"I don't recognize this place either, and I've been practically everywhere," Bartz replied. "As for how I got here, I don't remember clearly, but I know I was running away from a giant evil tree."

Zidane laughed. "You too? Maybe we ran into each other before and never noticed."

Bartz chuckled and gave a shrug. "Sorry, but I've never seen people with tails before."

"Neither have I," the warrior responded, "so that must mean that we're all from different worlds. The question is, what brought us here, and for what purpose?"

"Good point," Bartz replied, "but let's wait for you and this guy to rest up a bit more before we do any more serious discussion. I could use a break too."

Zidane stretched before resting against the back of the throne. "Same here, and who knows, maybe more people will show up."

They each took turns standing guard over the group and resting, except for the man in black who still hadn't regained consciousness. After what felt like an eternity, a flash appeared before them, and a man in white armor and white hair appeared before them, his sword brandished. "Where is this place?" he asked hesitantly.

"We don't know either, we're just as lost as you. I'm Bartz, this here's Zidane, and we have two nameless warriors here."

The man in white sheathed his sword. "I am Cecil." He walked over to the group. "If you don't mind me asking, have any of you seen a girl with green hair here?"

"No girls here, but if there were, I would've charmed them instantly," Zidane smirked.

Cecil was going to join the group, when there was another flash and a man equipped with every weapon imaginable came before them. "I wasn't expecting to be teleported when I defeated the Emperor…"

"This is a surprise to all of us as well, you're not alone." Cecil held out a hand to welcome the stranger.

"Forgive me my manners, I am Frioniel." Both men joined the rest of the group and talked about possibilities of why they were all summoned to this place. During their conversation, the man in black finally stirred and opened his eyes.

Zidane noticed him first. "Hey everyone, looks like he's finally awake."

The man in black stood quickly and brandished his weapon. "Who are all of you, and where is this place?"

"Calm down, you've been unconscious for a while, so take it easy for now." Bartz placed a hand on the man's shoulder. "We don't know where this is, but we should stick together for now until we can figure out what to do next. I'm Bartz, what's your name?"

The man still seemed a bit weary, but finally put his weapon away. "The name's Squall." He looked up at the sky, "What's that up there?"

All heads turned to where Squall was looking, and they all saw another flash. Upon closer inspection, it looked like someone was falling from the sky. The blond newcomer flipped himself in midair so he would land on his feet instead of his face and gave everyone a confused look. "This doesn't look like the Farplane at all," he scratched his head in confusion. "Are you guys all dead too?"

The question seemed to rub Squall in a bad way. He stormed up to the blond boy and grabbed his shirt. "What do you mean we're dead? Is this a joke?"

"Whoah whoah whoah, I didn't mean to say that you guys were dead. I know I was supposed to die, but I wasn't expecting to end up here." Squall saw that the boy was telling the truth and let him go. "Sorry about that."

"No problem, I guess." The boy turned to the rest of the group and waved. "I'm Tidus, howdy everyone."

Frioniel was about to introduce himself, when he saw a flash of light right behind Tidus, and a man with a giant sword was about to swing down on him. "Tidus, behind you!"

"Waugh!" Before anyone could see it, Tidus flipped away in a blink of an eye, and the sword came down upon empty air. "I told you I was sorry!"

But the person was new to the group. "Who are you guys? Did any of you see a guy wearing black with silver hair?"

"Cecil has white hair and Squall's wearing black, but we didn't see anyone with your description," Bartz piped up. "But who are you?"

Seeing that his target was nowhere in sight, the man relaxed his hold on his sword. "I'm Cloud." He turned to face Tidus. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to attack you."

"It's alright, it's not the first time someone attacked me." Tidus just wanted to lighten the mood, but Squall still looked sour. "Uh, just kidding."

Cecil surveyed the group. "More people keep appearing. How many of us are supposed to be here?"

The nameless warrior had been watching over the group silently. Everyone was dressed differently and seemed to come from different worlds, so what was their purpose in being called to this place?

_'You must be ten warriors altogether.'_

The warrior started, it was a feminine voice, but there were no females here. He was about to ask the others if they heard the voice, but no one else seemed to be startled, so he kept it to himself. 'Ten warriors altogether…'

Zidane spoke up. "Hey, maybe now's a good time to explore this place. We have enough people here to set up base here and for others to go out."

"We must wait for two more warriors." Everyone turned to the nameless warrior, surprised that he finally said something. "When two more warriors arrive, I believe everything will be explained."

"What makes you sure of that?" Squall questioned.

"It's a feeling I have." And with that, the warrior spoke no more.

"I guess it wouldn't be so bad to wait, I'm a bit tired and wanna rest for a bit." Tidus stretched and dropped himself to the floor.

Everyone decided to get more rest but as time passed, they were getting tired of waiting for the last two warriors, not knowing exactly when they would arrive. Finally, another flash appeared, and a small boy in red armor came out running. "Alright Arc, we're almost out!" But the boy noticed there was something amiss when he didn't recognize his surroundings. "Arc? Where are you?" The boy turned and saw a group of men looking at him. "What the heck, are you guys more cronies of that lady?"

The nameless warrior got up and approached the boy. "Do not be startled, we are not here to harm you."

The young boy trusted the older man, not sensing any hostility towards him. "Alright then."

"Don't worry, we're all just as confused as you." Frioniel reassured him. "So what's your name?"

"My name is L-," he began, but hesitated for a moment, "just call me Onion Knight."

"Onion Knight? Is that a codename for something?" Zidane asked curiously.

"If that's what he asked to be called, don't pressure him to much about it," Cloud spoke out.

Onion Knight felt reassured by Cloud's words and took a place next to him.

Bartz counted the number of people in their group. "So I guess we're just waiting for one more person now. I wonder what kind of fighter he is, maybe he'll be a huge guy with a giant axe or something."

Zidane let out a sigh. "There's already too many guys here, I really hope at least one girl comes along."

Bartz nudged his new friend. "Seeing as we're all guys here, there's a slim chance of a girl coming."

"Hey, it never hurts to hope though."

Bartz was about to make another retort, but they saw another flash and saw not a man, but a purple monster flying in the air. Everyone brandished their weapons to fight it, but the nameless warrior stepped forward. "Wait one moment."

The purple being looked at the group, then looked frantically around itself. "What's happening here? Where is this place? The tower, the airship, where is everyone?" With a fierce shriek, the monster gave off a blinding light. When everyone's eyes were focused again, to their surprise, they found a girl with green hair floating above them. Suddenly, she began to fall faster and Cloud, being the closest person to her, caught her before she hit the ground.

"Hey Cecil," Zidane kept his eyes on the girl's face as Cloud placed her gently on the ground, "you said you were looking for a girl with green hair, is this the girl?"

Cecil looked the girl over and shook his head. "Unfortunately, she isn't the girl I'm looking for."

During the group's confusion, the nameless warrior saw another flash out the corner of his eye. 'This girl makes us ten warriors, then who is that other flash?'

"You have all gathered." The voice that the nameless warrior heard earlier spoke again, but it seems that everyone heard the voice this time.

"Who are you? Show yourself!" Frioniel demanded.

A woman with flowing blond hair and a white dress appeared to them, sitting on the throne. "I wished for the last warrior to awaken before I spoke to all of you, but I'm afraid time is running short now."

"So you're going to tell us why we're all here now?" Squall eyed the woman with some caution.

"Forgive me for all your confusion and worries," the woman looked apologetic and sincere, "but all your questions will be answered now. My name is Cosmos, the goddess of harmony, and I have called all of you to fight against the forces of discord."

Onion Knight looked confused. "So we were all called here to fight? But we don't have any common enemies."

"You know your foes well, for you have encountered them before personally. And although it may seem that your worlds are different, they are all connected through the crystals, and the forces of discord threaten to break that harmony and balance."

Cecil's attitude became more serious and grave. "And who leads the forces of discord?"

Cosmos turned to look at the nameless warrior directly. "Chaos, the god of discord."

The nameless warrior's eyes shined with a fire for a fight. "Say your will Cosmos, and I will see that it gets done."

"Thank you, all of you," Cosmos bowed her head in thanks, "and I pray for all of your sakes, for the war has now begun."


End file.
